Documents board level employee representation 152 results

"During the 2008 financial crisis, board-level employee representation (BLER) was touted as an institution that could counter mismanagement with a stakeholder approach and thus improve the quality of corporate governance.

After the experience of the socioeconomic consequences of the Covid-19 global pandemic, today's growing concerns over the crisis in liberal and representative democracies have once again put worker participation and voice at the centre of interdisciplinary debates. Yet codetermination rights remain largely underdeveloped as a key dimension of EU industrial relations, with the issue of harmonisation moving on and off the EU agenda since the 1970s. How can this discrepancy be explained?

Revisiting worker representation on boards addresses this conundrum and advances comparative knowledge of BLER in Europe – which previous empirical research has demonstrated is not exclusively a German idiosyncrasy – by examining its sociopolitical significance as a concept and practice. It focuses on ten Member States which have often been underexplored in codetermination studies.

The aim of this volume is to provide a deeper understanding of current debates and practices around BLER and to assess the general prospects for development in this area of social policy at national and EU level. The book does not limit itself to acknowledging that the perceptions and practices of BLER remain largely anchored in national institutions, ideas and policy debates, but goes further to uncover parts of the underlying rationale behind this diverse and complex reality. The contributions draw on the EU acquis on worker participation and use different methodologies to quantify, map and evaluate the implementation, enactment and potential deployment of BLER.

For trade unionists, policymakers and researchers looking to orient themselves within the current debates and promote policies around worker representation on company boards, this book will certainly provide an invaluable compass."

"Corporate boards play a central role in corporate governance and are thus regulated in the corporate law and corporate governance codes of all industrialized countries. Yet while there is a common core of rules on the boards considerable differences remain. These differences depend partly on shareholder structure, partly on historical, political and social developments and especially employee representation on the board. More recently, in particular with the rise of the international corporate governance code movement, there is a clear tendency towards convergence, at least in terms of the formal provisions of the codes.

This book analyses the corporate boards, their regulation in law and codes and their actual functioning in ten European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). It offers the most up to date practical and analytical information on boards in Europe by leading company law experts. The issues addressed include: board structure, composition and functioning (one tier v. two tier, independent directors, expertise and diversity, separating the chair and the CEO functions, information streams, committees, voting and employee representation); enforcement by liability rules (in particular conflicts of interest), incentive structures (remuneration) and shareholder activism."

"Board Level Employee Representation in Europe analyses the role, activities and networking of board level employee representatives in sixteen European countries and their counterparts operating in companies that have adopted European status. Board level employee representation is viewed as a key element of worker participation in Europe, but there has been only limited international comparative research that establishes what board level employee representatives do and how their activities vary between countries. Based on a large-scale survey distributed to board level employee representatives (circa more than 4,000 respondents), this study identifies the personal characteristics and industrial location of board level employee representatives, what they do and how they interact with other parties within and outside of the company. This study fills in a knowledge gap at a time when policy debates are considering stakeholder models of corporate governance as a means on the way out of the crisis and the achievement of sustainable economies.

The book allows direct comparisons between clusters of countries for the first time, as the same survey instrument has been employed in all the participating countries. The research findings demonstrate a large variation in what constitutes board level employee representation in practice, including the relations between board level employee representatives and parties within and external to the company, and the pattern of influence of board level employee representatives on strategic company decision-making. Aimed at practioners, researchers and policymakers alike, this book makes a vital contribution to the field, and will be the definitive work on board-level employee representation for the foreseeable future."

"Reposant sur une philosophie sociale selon laquelle le capital et le travail ont vocation à « cogérer » ou « co-déterminer » (mitbestimmen) la marche de l'entreprise, la cogestion des salariés (Mitbestimmung) constitue l'un des piliers du partenariat social allemand. Elle recherche un équilibre entre les droits du capital et ceux du travail en compensant le poids considérable de l'employeur au sein de l'entreprise. Pour ce faire, la cogestion instaure des régimes légaux de représentation permettant aux salariés, par l'entremise de représentants élus ou désignés, d'exercer un droit de contrôle et de participer à la gestion ainsi qu'à l'organisation de l'entreprise. Ainsi, tout en ne portant pas atteinte à la prépondérance des actionnaires au sein du conseil de surveillance, la cogestion garantit le maintien d'une concertation sociale permanente au sommet de l'entreprise. C'est sans doute cette cohésion sociale qui constitue l'un des éléments essentiels de la performance des entreprises allemandes. Outre la présentation des lois qui organisent la cogestion des salariés, la présente analyse se penche sur les différents régimes juridiques qui la composent et sur sa portée réelle au sein du conseil de surveillance"